Keith Emerson, Kenn Kweder, and a Tale of Two Rock Docs

Here’s an object lesson in how crowdfunding changes everything. Imagine if you will two music documentaries in the making. One is about Keith Emerson – keyboard wizard, prog progenitor, and one-time genuine arena rock star. The other is about Kenn Kweder, a regional rocker whose name would barely raise a ripple outside the greater Philadelphia area. Now: which of these projects, simultaneously campaigning on Indiegogo, has outraised the other by a factor of five?

If you guessed the latter, you win the Amanda Palmer prize for online savvy. Kenn Kweder has been a mainstay-cum-icon on the Philly scene since the 1970s, when he started burning up bars with his band the Secret Kidds. Dubbed a rock messiah by some fans, his success helped convince local venues to book unsigned local talent, paving the way for other Philly artists to break nationally. Kweder never did, but he never stopped playing either. Affectionately known as the Mayor of South Street, he still gigs nightly around town, the guitar now acoustic, the hair shorter and grayer, but the songs and stories still flowing.

At least, that’s the sense I get from the film’s Indiegogo page and campaign video. Like most people, I’ve never seen Kenn Kweder and had no idea who he was. But it’s an appealing project nonetheless. Filmmaker John Hutelmeyer first encountered the singer-songwriter while studying at Temple, and his doc in progress carries the irresistible tagline “Kenn Kweder is a rock star. It says so on his business card.” It’s a funny line (and a true one – it actually does say that on Kweder’s business card), but it’s more than just that. As of this writing the Kweder film has raised nearly $15,000 of a $25,000 goal, showing that a rock star is whomever and whatever the fans say it is. I don’t know if any of the doc’s 150-odd contributors to date are from outside Philadelphia, but they want to see this movie, and that’s what matters.

Keith Emerson, on the other hand, was a Big Deal. Emerson: Pictures of an Exhibitionist – the title comes from Emerson’s 2003 autobiography, playing on the Mussorgsky composition famously covered by Emerson, Lake & Palmer (Carl, not Amanda) – will chronicle the rock ‘n’ roll life of an instrumental virtuoso whose expansive classical flourishes, 10-foot-tall customized Moog synthesizer, and habit of plunging knives into his Hammond B3 came to personify a certain kind of ’70s rock genius/excess/foolery. Emerson is actively involved in the film, executive producing and providing an original score, and old cronies like Greg Lake, Rick Wakeman, and Andrew Loog Oldham are among the interviewees.

Coincidentally sharing a May 14 donor deadline with the Kenn Kweder doc, Pictures of an Exhibitionist – goal: $60,000 – has raised about $2,700 to date. Now, ELP was not my cup of seven-part, 20-minute long tea, but in making this comparison I intend no schadenfreude. (Wasn’t that the name of an album by the Nice?) I’m merely struck by such a neat example of how crowdfunding levels the playing field, opening doors for a project that taps into a deep if not necessarily wide well of love for an artist. Keith Emerson still draws a lot more people to his shows than Kenn Kweder (he’d have to, to afford shipping around the Moog), and his doc’s Facebook page has 1,700 likes, but fewer than three dozen have contributed to get the movie made. C’mon, prog people, get with the program. To contribute to or learn more about either film, click on one of the widgets below. Or both; there must be some people, if only in Philly, who love both Kenn Kweder and Keith Emerson.